Traditionally, the medical records of a patient are paper-based medical records, in which each medical service provider (that provides medical services to the patient) maintains a separate medical record for that patient.
Often, when treating patients who have certain medical conditions, it is advisable to routinely monitor various variables of that patient's condition. Examples of these conditions include those patients who are overweight, diabetic, or have hypertension; and examples of these variables include body weight, blood glucose levels, and blood pressure (respectively). Further, when monitoring these variables, the patient's medical record should be updated to include these monitored variables.
Unfortunately, with paper-based medical records, the medical service provider would need to manually review the medical records of each of their patients to determine which patients have these conditions. Additionally, these patients would have to be manually contacted so that their paper-based medical records could be manually updated.
Currently, paper-based medical records are slowly being converted into electronic, centrally-located databases that are accessible by various medical service providers.